Bob Dole: “20 years ago this month, as Transportation Secretary, raising the drinking age to 21 across our Nation was a measure I…”

“20 years ago this month, as Transportation Secretary, raising the drinking age to 21 across our Nation was a measure I was confident in supporting. I was confident it would prevent crippling and disabling injuries and save thousands of lives. Statistics of teens driving across State borders, "blood borders," into a neighboring State with a lower drinking age, then driving back under the influence of alcohol, convinced me of the dire need to eliminate the differences between State laws. Senator Frank Lautenberg, Senator Richard Lugar, and former Senator Jack Danforth were instrumental in the passage of age 21 legislation. On July 17, 1984, when President Reagan signed this law in a Rose Garden ceremony, he said: We know that drinking, plus driving, spells death and disaster. . . . And I know there's one . . . simple measure that will save thousands of young lives . . . if we raise the drinking age. And it has. Twenty thousand lives have been saved in 20 years. The numbers represent real people, tragedies averted, family members and friends who did not have to suffer the loss of a loved one in an alcohol-related automobile accident. My family had to suffer such a loss. My uncle, just out of college, just about to be married, was hit head on and killed by a drunk driver.”